Asia Cup: Suryakumar Yadav Is Right, India vs Pakistan Isn’t A Rivalry Anymore

2025 Asia Cup, India vs Pakistan: Don’t blame Suryakumar Yadav; a 7-0 scoreline bears no semblance to a rivalry.

2025 Asia Cup: Is India vs Pakistan even a rivalry anymore? Can Suryakumar Yadav be blamed?

(Photo: ACC)

Ahead of India’s second clash against Pakistan at the 2025 Asia Cup, Suryakumar Yadav was asked whether beating the neighbours still carried the same thrill it did in the early 2000s. The Indian captain offered a disarmingly simple response — he wouldn’t know, for, he didn’t play in the early 2000s.

Yadav was yet to embrace his teen years during that era, but he might have fragmented recollections. For those who don’t — it had very little resemblance to the current scenario. In fact, it was starkly contrasting. Though, arguably, not as one-sided as it is today, but the scales inevitably tipped towards Pakistan.

That, they were not as routine, made victories special. Like when Sadagopan Ramesh and Rahul Dravid’s partnership got India their first ODI win over Pakistan after eight straight defeats, in the 1999 Coca-Cola Cup. Or when Anil Kumble etched himself into history with ten wickets in an innings in Delhi in the same year, handing India their first Test triumph over Pakistan after a 22-match drought.

Suryakumar Yadav's Declaration

An India-Pakistan game has always sparked hysteria. The advent of social media, new regimes, and with those, a swelling appetite for performative patriotism have only amplified the primal urge to assert supremacy. And what better platform to do so but sports, where scorecards can’t be fabricated to suit narratives?

Yet in purely cricketing terms, the once-fierce rivalry — exhilarating, anxiety-inducing, ecstasy-causing — is now a shell of itself. Which is why Yadav cannot be faulted for declaring, after India’s seventh consecutive white-ball win over Pakistan:

You guys should stop asking about the rivalry. If the two teams are playing 15-20 games & the scoreline is 7-7 or 8-7, then it is called rivalry. If the scoreline is 10-1 or 13-0, I don't know the exact number but this is not a rivalry anymore.

Suryakumar Yadav

Almost Everything Worked in Pakistan's Favour

On 21 September, India made the scoreline 7-0 against Pakistan across their last seven ODI and T20I meetings. And on this particular occasion, Pakistan were provided with every possible opportunity to reduce the disparity in quality between the two teams.

In the first over itself, Abhishek Sharma dropped the catch of Pakistan’s most promising batter from the current squad, Sahibzada Farhan. As it turned out, it was not a rare blip from what is usually a very secure fielding side. India went on to drop four more catches, as if doing all in their control to provide Pakistan with an even playing field.

For the first time in three years, India’s best seamer, Jasprit Bumrah went wicketless whilst conceding north of 40 runs. And after 11 consecutive matches where he had at least one wicket to his name, Varun Chakaravarthy, the number 1 ranked spinner in men’s T20I cricket, returned with no success.

And if these weren’t enough, captain Suryakumar Yadav recorded his first-ever T20I duck against a team from the subcontinent.

And Yet, India Won Comfortably

Despite these factors working out in their favour, Pakistan were beaten, and comfortably so. Opting to bowl first, India restricted Salman Ali Agha’s team to a score of 171/5 — not in synchronisation with the usual standards, but a decent effort nonetheless considering the dropped chances and how the team’s two most lethal bowlers returned without wickets.

The dew in Dubai is notorious for easing second-innings batting, but history highlighted that no side had overhauled 170+ here in nearly three years of men’s T20Is. Yet, all it took was only one delivery for the win predictor to significantly favour India — the first ball, where Abhishek Sharma sent Shaheen Shah Afridi packing for a maximum. Since then, it was only a one-way traffic.

Sharma scored a 39-ball 74, which also was his maiden international half-century against an Asian team. He was ably supported by childhood friend Shubman Gill, who recorded his first 40+ score in T20I cricket in over a year, with a 28-ball 47.

By the time Gill was dismissed, the fate of the game seemed all but sealed. India were 105/1 in 9.5 overs, and Pakistan were out of ideas. Indeed, Yadav’s duck and Sanju Samson’s bizarrely slow knock of 13 runs in 17 deliveries delayed India’s victory, but it was never likely to jeopardise it.

The Sharma-Gill axis is not known for restraint, and they certainly didn’t in this fixture — be it with the bat or with words. Referring to a heated exchange with Haris Rauf, he said:

Today it was very simple, the way they were coming at us for no reason, I didn't like it at all and this is the only way I could give medicine to them.

Abhishek Sharma

The Question Isn't If, But When The Tables Will Finally Turn

Sunil Gavaskar faced criticism for calling the Pakistani team ‘Popatwadi’ after the defeat on 14 September. Nomenclatures and terminologies aside, Pakistan simply have had no answers to India's staggering rise in the sport over the last couple of decades.

Keeping the sample size same as what the Indian captain suggested — 15 matches — Pakistan have emerged victorious only thrice. And in only two of the other occasions did they offer some semblance of resilience — in Melbourne, where they were undone by Virat Kohli’s brilliance, and in Nassau County, where they were undone by their own sheer lack of brilliance.

What once felt an immovable head-to-head now seems destined to tilt. The numbers tell the story:

• Tests: India 9 – 12 Pakistan

• ODIs: India 58 – 73 Pakistan

• T20Is: India 12 – 3 Pakistan

• Overall: India 79 – 88 Pakistan

At the dawn of the millennium, Pakistan led 56–32. In the 25 years since, India have whittled down that 24-match gulf to nine. The question now is not if India will erase the deficit, but when.